This invention relates generally to field of visual displays of data.
It is well known to provide visual displays of data, including partial visual displays of data, under conditions where limited space is available for the visual displays. In particular, it is known to provide partial visual displays of lists of data, and to provide techniques for accessing and displaying data in the lists that is not visible in the partial visual display.
For example, it is known to use scrolling lists to display subsets of a total list of data. Scrolling lists permit a user to view a window of a list of data, and use a mouse to move the viewing window up or down the list. Moving the window in this manner permits the user to view additional data that was not previously displayed in the available visual display space. In addition to permitting users to use a mouse to move the viewing window, it is known to permit users to use a keystroke and many other types of input devices. In some methods it is possible to use the input device to move a viewing window to the left or to the right, rather than up or down, in order to permit the visual display of additional data. However, scrolling of data can be ergonomically difficult for users. Additionally, it can be time consuming to locate a specific data item using scrolling without additional mechanisms like searching and filtering.
Another problem with scrolling list design is with selection of a range of items. If the user wants to select a range of items, it is often necessary to scroll to one item, select it, and while holding the shift key, scroll to another item and select it. When performing this procedure the entire range of the selection may not be completely visible. Therefore, the user is forced to scroll up and down on the list to ensure the desired range of items is selected.
Is also known to use paging tables to enable users to view portions of lists of data. Accordingly, data that does not fit in the available visual display space can be stored in indexed virtual memory, and accessed and displayed under the control of the user. However, paging tables can also have significant usability issues with regard to selection and manipulation of the data to be displayed. For example, paging tables can require trial and error to locate specific data items since it is often not known which pages contain the desired data. Thus, the use of paging tables can often require more time to locate data items than the use of scrolling techniques.
Thus, both scrolling and paging tables can impede arbitrary access to desired data items in a large list of data items, Therefore, scrolling and paging currently contribute significantly to negative user satisfaction in graphical user interface products.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,295,059, issued to Lentz et al. on Sep. 25, 2001, teaches a method for compressing and expanding items of information displayed to a user. The information items taught by Lentz et al. are displayed as images formed of rows of information pixels. In order to compress the images representing the information items, and to permit the display of additional images of information, varying numbers of rows of pixels forming the displayed items are omitted. In order to expand an information item that has been compressed in this manner, the information item is reconstituted by restoring the omitted rows of pixels using bitmaps of the images.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,100,119 issued to Keely et al. on Aug. 29, 2006 teaches a graphical user interfaces for computer display devices. The Keely et al. graphical user interface includes a page bar control element for allowing a user to navigate the pages of a multiple page electronic document, and/or to navigate among the pages of a plurality of different electronic documents. The page bar control element taught by Keely provides a visual representation of a plurality of pages of a document. The visual representations of the pages include a plurality of markers. The markers represent one or more pages of the document or documents. The user can view the contents of the various pages in the document by moving an input device along the page bar control element to the markers.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2006/0048073 A1, filed by Jarret et al. on Nov. 12, 2004, teaches a system for addressing some of the ergonomic problems associated with scrolling information on a visual display. In the Janet et al. system a user uses a cursor or a panning tool to cause the displayed information to move in tandem with the cursor or tool as it is moved over the display. The cursor can be deactivated, and the displayed information continues to scroll for a user-determined period of time after the cursor is deactivated. The speed of the continued scrolling is also controllable by the user. Furthermore, the speed of the continued scrolling need not be constant during the period of continued scrolling.